The National ID Card (Arabic: Biṭāgat Al-hawiyya Al-waṭaniyya بطاقة الهوية الوطنية), commonly known by its old colloquial name Biṭāgat Al-ʼaḥwāl (

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

: بطاقة الأحوال ), is a Saudi Arabian identity card and proof of citizenship. The card is used for identification with "government agencies and third party service providers such as banks". The card may also be used for travel within the countries of the

Gulf Cooperation Council The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf ( ar, مجلس التعاون لدول العربية الخليج ), also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC; ar, مجلس التعاون الخليجي), is a regional, inter ...

(GCC). Since April 2010.

Physical appearance and data storage

The card is credit-card-sized and contains a 2.86-megabyte optical stripe and a contact chip to store data, as well as finger prints and a facial image. The card does contain a barcode, but no machine-readable zone. All fields of the card are in

except for the texts ''National ID Card'' and ''Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Ministry of Interior'', which is also present in English.

References

{{Saudi Arabia topics

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...

Government of Saudi Arabia

Physical appearance and data storage

See also

References